Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, Eig - A*

                      Henry Louis Gehrig was born to German immigrant parents in Manhattan on June 19, 1903. He was the only one of four children his mother, Christina, gave birth to to survive infancy.  "The Gehrig family had been pounded by poverty and wrecked by disease, but Christina emerged as a hero to her only surviving child." He would be attached to her for his entire life.

                       At Commerce High, Lou played soccer, football, and excelled at baseball. He went to Columbia on scholarship, and in April 1923, he signed with the Yankees. He spent 1923 and '24 with the Hartford Senators. The Yankees called him up in September of 1924.  The following June, with Wally Pipp struggling at the plate,  Gehrig started at first base. It would be fourteen years and 2130 games later that the 'Iron Horse' would take himself out of the starting lineup. The 1926 season saw Gehrig established at first base, and the Yankees win the pennant only to lose in seven to the Cards. The following year he had a phenomenal season for 'Murderers' Row', the most famous team in baseball history. The 1927 New York Yankees have been the hallmark of excellence for almost a century. Everyone in and around baseball loved home runs and the Yankees provided 158, more than one per game. At the midway point of the season, both Lou and the Babe had 25. The battle between Ruth, the 'sinner' and Gehrig, the 'saint' for home run supremacy caught the nation's eye. They both had 44 on September 4th. The Babe finished with 60, 164 RBI's and .356. Lou had 47, 174 RBI's and .373. They swept the Pirates in the Series.

                         In those days, the baseball season was extended by a month, sometimes more, by barnstorming. Teams traveled the country playing anyone and everyone for some pretty good earnings. The 'Bustin Babes' and the 'Larrupin Lous' hit the road in early October. The Babe made $30,000 for a month of work, and Lou made $10,000. The Yanks repeated in 1928 and swept the Cardinals. They faltered badly in 1929, and their manager, Miller Huggins, died. The stock market crashed and the Great Depression began. "While everything seemed to fall apart during the Depression, baseball carried on, led by some of the greatest heroes the game would ever see, providing welcome entertainment to a nation soaked in gloom...No one would play better baseball in the 1930's than Lou Gehrig. If Babe Ruth was the perfect hero for the glorious days of prosperity, Gehrig - durable, dependable, and dignified - was the man for hard times."

                           In 1930, both the Babe and Lou had excellent seasons, but the Yankees' pitching could not keep up with Philadelphia. The same thing happened in 1931 when Lou broke his own American League RBI record with 185. In 1932, the team found its groove, won the pennant, and swept the Cubs. During the Series, Lou met a 28 year old woman named Eleanor Twitchell in Chicago and struck up a conversation.  The following spring, the 30 year old who still lived at home with his mother asked a woman he hardly knew to marry him. Toward the end of the 1933 season, they married in New Rochelle. Christina and Eleanor would never get along.

                          The 1934 season saw Lou win the Triple Crown and the Babe begin to fade.  Lou no longer played second fiddle to Babe. The Yankees traded Ruth at the beginning of the 1935 season. He was soon out of the game. The beat writers for the Yankees missed the Babe, and Lou proved a bit too boring to keep them enthused. Thankfully, 1936 saw the emergence of the 21 year old rookie, Joe DiMaggio. Lou was MVP of the season and the Giants fell in six. In 1937, they beat the Giants again. Lou got his 35th world Series RBI. No one could imagine that it would be the thirty-four year old slugger's last Series RBI. 

                          Sometime in 1938, the indestructible Lou Gehrig contracted  amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Spring training was a struggle. His hands ached, his timing was off and his legs felt wobbly. After the first few weeks of the season, he had the lowest batting average in the AL. He started to hit in May, but the power wasn't there. The muscles in his legs, arms, and shoulders began to atrophy. He finished the season with a .295 average. The Yanks swept the Cubs, but Lou was not a factor in the Series. The following spring, a smaller Gehrig went to spring training and could barely play. He started eight games in April, the last one on the 30th. He spent a week at the Mayo Clinic in June and was told he had ALS. Exactly what he was told about the disease is clouded in mystery, because he told his wife he'd need a cane in 10-15 years. Yet, ALS was known to be 100% fatal. Throughout his decline, his lead doctor did offer him hope. On July 4th, the Yankees hosted Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day and the quiet, shy Lou Gehrig spoke words that have resonated for decades. "Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." I suspect those are the most well known ever spoken by an athlete in America, if not the world.

                             As the season wound down, he accepted a job offer from Mayor LaGuardia to be a NYC parole commissioner. Lou announced the job as "the greatest thrill of my life." Before year end, the Yankees retired his number, and the baseball writers suspended the rules and put him in the Hall of Fame immediately. By the end of 1940, he was in a wheelchair and could barely eat. He died on June 2, 1941. "ALS is a disease of weakness, but Lou Gehrig's disease is associated with strength - the strength of a stricken man who said he felt lucky." The following year 'The Pride of the Yankees' was released and nominated for ten Oscars. The film immortalized Gehrig's farewell remarks. When Gary Cooper did USO tours during the war, he recited the 'Luckiest Man Alive' speech for the GI's every night.